White House Nominates Two for Key EPA Posts
The White House announced the nominations of David Ross and Mathew Leopold to serve in two key posts at EPA. President Trump nominated David Ross of Wisconsin to be an Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water. Mr. Ross currently serves as the Director of the Environmental Protection Unit for the Wisconsin Department of Justice. He previously served as a Senior Assistant Attorney General in the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office, where he represented the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality on water quality matters. Mr. Ross also represented the State of Wyoming on the Assumable Waters Subcommittee of the National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology. Prior to entering public service, Mr. Ross practiced environmental law in Washington DC and worked as an environmental consultant in California. Mr. Ross attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for undergraduate studies, and grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin. He earned his law degree and a Master of Studies in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School. While in law school, Mr. Ross served as Editor-in-Chief of the Vermont Law Review.
Along with Mr. Ross, President Trump nominated Matthew Z. Leopold of Florida to be an Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, General Counsel. Mr. Leopold is a lawyer in Tallahassee, Florida with the law firm of Carlton Fields. He is the former General Counsel of the Florida Department of Environment Protection and a former attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division. He has 10 years of combined Federal and State government experience. Mr. Leopold’s practice focuses exclusively on environment law, policy, and litigation. He has represented State and Federal governments on complex environmental litigation, including Florida v. Georgia, an original action in the United States Supreme Court, and United States v. BP Exploration and Production, Inc., to address the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He also represented Florida in the long-running Everglades case, and worked with policy makers to help move comprehensive restoration forward. Mr. Leopold previously served as an environmental policy adviser in the Washington, D.C. office of Governor Jeb Bush.
Septic Smart Week: September 18-22, 2017
Septic Smart Week is just around the corner. The goal of Septic Smart Week is to encourage homeowners, wastewater professionals, and state, tribal, and local officials to design and maintain effective systems to protect public health, preserve valuable water resources, and sustain economic vitality in their communities. Keep a look out for EPA’s quick tips to make staying smart a breeze:
- Think at the Sink
- Don’t Overload the Commode
- Don’t Strain Your Drain
- Shield Your Field
- Test Your Drinking Water Well
You can find more information on how to get septic smart proclamation in your area, new home buyer’s brochure, case studies and other septic system outreach materials here.
Save the Date & Travel Support: National Stormwater Roundtable
Back in July ACWA announced the dates for the 2018 National Stormwater Roundtable which will be held in Atlanta, Georgia from Tuesday, February 20, 2018 to Thursday, February 22, 2018. ACWA is seeking volunteers to join the Agenda Planning Committee. We have also extended the deadline to September 15, 2017 to submit your state travel support needs. If you plan to request travel support from ACWA, please do your best to provide an estimate of the cost categories and total expenses you will need. Volunteers for the Planning Committee and requests for travel support should be submitted to Sean Rolland (srolland@acwa-us.org) by September 15, 2017. Thank you!
Save the Date & Travel Support: Variance Face-to-Face Workshop
The Variance Face-to-Face Workshop will be held on November 16th and 17th, 2017 in Washington, DC. The workshop will be a venue for face-to-face information sharing between the state water quality standards staff and the EPA. For more information on this meeting and a draft agenda please see the website, which will be update periodically. ACWA will be able to provide some travel support for the states. For more information on travel support and to register for this workshop, please contact Frances Bothfeld. The last day to register is October 23rd, 2017.
ACWA TMDL Modeling Workgroup Update
ACWA Staff and the ACWA Watersheds Committee have been planning and preparing to launch a special workgroup made up of TMDL modelers (loosely defined), in order to create a inter-state community of practice where modelers can overcome the lack of staff and resources at the state level by using the workgroup as a platform to ask questions to each other, share information on creating and using different models, find individuals knowledgeable about particular models, and more. The workgroup will also work with EPA modeling experts as needed as well. We plan to contact everyone who has expressed interest in participating next week as the workspace goes live, so if you or your staff are interested, please reach out to Julian Gonzalez, the ACWA lead, soon.
Water Quality Trading Case Studies
This past June, ACWA held a Water Quality Trading Workshop in Washington, DC. The workshop was a venue for face-to-face information sharing between the states with various levels of involvement in water quality trading, including states with robust programs, states in the process of starting programs, and states looking to learn more about trading. The goal of the workshop was to establish open lines of communication between practitioners nationwide.
To continue these efforts, ACWA is seeking case studies on water quality trading programs to share on the ACWA website. We are looking for states at various levels of program development to describe their programs/efforts answering questions such as, what are/were the drivers for starting a water quality trading program?; what was the process to get the program created and running?; who are/were the players in the process?; what is the public reception of your program?; what do you hope to achieve with the program?; and what challenges did you face in development and implementation of your program? If your state used or is using The Water Quality Trading Toolkit, please describe your work with it as well. Even if your state/organization is at the beginning of the process, we would still appreciate hearing the status of your efforts. The descriptions need not be longer than a page or two.
If you would like to contribute, please reach out to Mark Patrick McGuire. We would like to get the case studies posted by the end of the month.
Coming Up…
ACWA Updated Aquatic Life Ambient Water Quality Criteria for Aluminum in Freshwater
Wednesday, September 13, 2017, 2:00 – 3:00 pm Eastern
For call-in information and agenda information, contact Frances Bothfeld.
ACWA Monitoring, Standards, and Assessment Call: Algal Indicators Paper
Wednesday, September 20, 2017, 2:30 – 4:00 pm Eastern
For call-in information and agenda information, contact Frances Bothfeld.
ACWA Legal Affairs Committee Quarterly Call
Thursday, October 12, 2017, 2:00 – 3:00 pm Eastern
For call-in information and agenda information, contact Mark Patrick McGuire.
